Day 16 回顾
一天，Juli爸爸下班带回一只流浪狗，取名“Champion”，它到处撒尿，知道缘由后，妈妈恨之入骨，再也不允许它进入屋子。Juli哥哥们给他们乐队取名“神秘尿尿者”---“Mystery pisser”。“冠军”成为家中宠物的事件后，Juli学校科技展开始了。鸡蛋的故事从这里展开，...
Day 17 The Eggs 女生视角
Everyone around me had great project ideas, but I couldn’t seem to come up with one. Then our teacher, Mrs. Brubeck, took me aside and told me about a friend of hers who had chickens, and how she could get me a fertilized egg for my project.
我周围的每个人都有很棒的项目想法，但我似乎一点头绪也没有。这时，我们的老师布鲁贝克夫人把我拉到一边，告诉我她的一个朋友养了几只鸡，还说她能给我拿到一个受精卵做项目。
“But I don’t know anything about hatching an egg,” I told her.
“但我对如何孵蛋一窍不通，”我告诉她。
She smiled and put her arm around my shoulders. “You don’t have to be an immediate expert at everything, Juli. The idea here is to learn something new.”
她笑着搂住了我的肩膀。“你不必对任何事情都是速成行家，朱莉。我们的目的是要学习一些新的东西。”
“But what if it dies?”
“Then it dies. Document your work scientifically and you’ll still get an A, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“但是万一它死了呢？”
“死就死了呗！科学地记录你的活动，你还会得到“A”，如果你担心这个的话。”
An A? Being responsible for the death of a baby chick—that’s what I was worried about. Suddenly there was real appeal in building a volcano or making my own neoprene or demonstrating the various scientific applications of gear ratios.
担心能否得到A？要为一只小鸡的死亡负责——这才是我所担心的。突然间，建造一座人造火山、制造氯丁橡胶或演示传动装置的科学原理，对我来说真正有了吸引力。
But the ball was in motion(运转), and Mrs. Brubeck would have no more discussion about it. She pulled The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens from her bookshelf and said, “Read the section on artificial incubation and set yourself up tonight. I’ll get you an egg tomorrow.”
但是事至如此，布鲁贝克夫人不再和我讨论这个问题。她从书架上拿出《养鸡初学者指南》，说：“读一下关于人工孵化的部分，今晚准备好。我明天就带个鸡蛋给你。”
“But… ”
“Don’t worry so much, Juli,” she said. “We do this every year, and it’s always one of the best projects at the fair.”
“但是...”
“别那么担心，朱莉，”她说。“我们每年都这样做，这永远是科技展上最好的项目之一。”
I said, “But…,” but she was gone. Off to put an end to some other student’s battle with indecision.
我说，“但是……”但是她已走了。去终结其他学生的优柔寡断。
That night I was more worried than ever. I'd read the chapter on incubation at least four times and was still confused about where to start. I didn’t happen to have an old aquarium lying around! We didn’t happen to have an incubation thermometer! Would a deep-fry model work?
那天晚上，我比以前更加担心了。我至少读了四遍关于孵化的章节，但仍然不知道从何入手。我手边并不碰巧有一个旧水族箱，我们也没有一个孵化温度计！煎炸用的模具合适吗？
I was supposed to control humidity, too, or horrible things would happen to the chick. Too dry and the chick couldn’t peck out; too wet and it would die of mushy chick disease. Mushy chick disease?!
我也应该控制湿度，否则小鸡会遭殃。太干燥，小鸡无法破壳而出；太湿了，它会死于软弱雏鸡病。软弱雏鸡病？!
My mother, being the sensible person that she is, told me to tell Mrs. Brubeck that I simply wouldn’t be hatching a chick. “Have you considered growing beans?” she asked me.
我母亲一直是个理智的人，她叫我告诉老师，我根本不会孵小鸡。“你考虑过种豆子了吗？”她问我。
My father, however, understood that you can’t refuse to do your teacher’s assignment, and he promised to help. “An incubator’s not difficult to build. We’ll make one after dinner.”
然而，我父亲明白学生不能拒绝老师分派的任务，并且他答应帮忙。“建造一个孵化器并不难。晚饭后我们就来做一个。”
How my father knows exactly where things are in our garage is one of the wonders of the universe. How he knew about incubators, however, was revealed to me while he was drilling a one-inch hole in an old scrap of Plexiglas. “I raised a duck from an egg when I was in high school.” He grinned at me. “Science fair project.”
我父亲确切地知道我们车库里的什么东西在哪里，这真是宇宙的奇迹之一。然而，当他在一块旧的有机玻璃碎片上钻出一个一英寸长的洞时，他向我展示了他制作孵化器的本领。“我上高中的时候，曾孵化了一只鸭子。”他咧嘴朝我一笑。“也是科学展的项目。”
“A duck?”
“Yes, but the principle is the same for all poultry. Keep the temperature constant and the humidity right, turn the egg several times a day, and in a few weeks you’ll have yourself a little peeper.”
“鸭子？”
“是的，不过孵化家禽的原理都一样。保持温度恒定，湿度正常，一天翻转鸡蛋几次，几周后你就会孵出一只叽叽喳喳的小鸡。”
He handed me a lightbulb and an extension cord with a socket attached. “Fasten this through the hole in the Plexiglas. I’ll find some thermometers.”
“Some? We need more than one?”
“We have to make you a hygrometer.”
“A hygrometer?”
“To check the humidity inside the incubator. It’s just a thermometer with wet gauze around the bulb.”
I smiled. “No mushy chick disease?”
He smiled back. “Precisely.”
他递给我一个灯泡和一根带有插座的延长线。“把它通过树脂玻璃上的洞固定起来。我会找一些温度计的。”
“一些？我们需要不止一个吗？”
“我们得给你做一个湿度计。”
“湿度计？”
“检查培养箱内的湿度。它只是一个在灯泡周围包有湿纱布的温度计。”
我笑了。“不会得软弱雏鸡病吗？”
他笑了笑。“肯定不会。”
By the next afternoon I had not one, but six chicken eggs incubating at a cozy 102 degrees Fahrenheit. “They don’t all make it, Juli,” Mrs. Brubeck told me. “Hope for one. The record’s three. The grade’s in the documentation. Be a scientist. Good luck.” And with that, she was off.
第二天下午，我拿到了不是一个，而是六个鸡蛋，放在舒适的102华氏度下的孵化箱里。“不是所有的蛋都能孵化出来，朱莉。”布鲁贝克夫人告诉我。“希望能孵出一个，记录是三个。此成绩记录在案。做一个小科学家。祝你好运。”说完，她就走了。
Documentation? Of what? I had to turn the eggs three times a day and regulate the temperature and humidity, but aside from that what was there to do?
记录在案？我能做什么呢？我不得不每天翻转鸡蛋三次，调节温度和湿度，但除此之外，还能做什么呢？
That night my father came out to the garage with a cardboard tube and a flashlight. He taped the two together so that the light beam was forced straight out the tube. “Let me show you how to candle an egg,” he said, then switched off the garage light.
那天晚上，我父亲拿着一个纸板管和一个手电筒来到车库。他把这两个绑起来，这样光束就从管子直射过去。“我来教你如何照亮查看鸡蛋，”他说，然后关掉了车库的灯。
I’d seen a section on candling eggs in Mrs. Brubeck’s book, but I hadn’t really read it yet. “Why do they call it that?” I asked him. “And why do you do it?”
我在布鲁贝克夫人给我的书里看过关于烛照鸡蛋的部分，但我还没有真正读过。“为什么这么称呼？”我问了他。“为什么要这么做呢？”
“People used candles to do this before they had incandescent lighting.” He held an egg up to the cardboard tube. “The light lets you see through the shell so you can watch the embryo develop. Then you can cull the weak ones, if necessary.”
“Kill them?”
“Cull them. Remove the ones that don’t develop properly.”
“But… wouldn’t that also kill them?”
He looked at me. "Leaving an egg you should cull might have disastrous result on the healthy ones."
“人们在有白炽灯之前就用蜡烛来做这件事。”他把一个鸡蛋举到硬纸板管上。“光线可以让你透过外壳看到胚胎，这样你就可以看到胚胎的发育。如果有必要，你可以淘汰较弱的。”
“杀了他们？”
“选择性宰杀他们。剔除那些发育不正常的。”
“但是……这不也是杀了他们吗？”
他看着我。“留下一个你应该淘汰的鸡蛋可能会对健康的鸡蛋造成灾难性的后果。”
“Why? Wouldn’t it just not hatch?”
He went back to lighting up the egg. “It might explode and contaminate the other eggs with bacteria.”
“为什么？它们只是不能孵化而已啊？”
他继续用光照鸡蛋。“它可能会爆炸，细菌会污染其他鸡蛋。”
Explode! Between mushy chick disease, exploding eggs, and culling, this project was turning out to be the worst! Then my father said, “Look here, Julianna. You can see the embryo.” He held the flashlight and egg out so I could see.
爆炸！软弱雏鸡病、鸡蛋爆炸，扑杀，这个项目原来是最糟糕的！然后我父亲说：“听着，朱莉安娜。”你可以看到胚胎。”他拿出手电筒和鸡蛋，好让我看见。
Ilooked inside and he said, “See the dark spot there? In the middle? With
all the veins leading to it?”
“The thing that looks like a bean?”
“That’s it!”
我朝里看了看，他说：“看到那里的黑点了吗？在中间？所有的血管都通向它？”
“那个看起来像豆子的东西吗？”
“就是它！”
Suddenly it felt real. This egg was alive. This egg was alive. I quickly checked the rest of the group.
There were little bean babies in all of them! Surely they had to live. Surely they would all make it!
突然间有了真实感。这个蛋是活的。我迅速查看了一组里其他的鸡蛋。它们所有里面都有小豆样的宝宝！它们肯定要活下去。它们肯定都会成功的！
“Dad? Can I take the incubator inside? It might get too cold out here at night, don’t you think?”
“I was going to suggest the same thing. Why don’t you prop open the door? I’ll carry it for you.”
“爸爸？我能把保温箱搬进去吗？这里晚上可能太冷了，你不觉得吗？”
“我也正想提出同样的建议呢。你把门打开，我把它搬进去。”
For the next two weeks I was completely consumed with the growing of chicks. I labeled the eggs A, B, C, D, E, and F, but before long they had names, too: Abby, Bonnie, Clyde, Dexter, Eunice, and Florence. Every day I weighed them, candled them, and turned them. I even thought it might be good for them to hear some clucking, so for a while I did that, too, but clucking is tiring! It was much easier to hum around my quiet little flock, so I did that, instead. Soon I was humming without even thinking about it, because when I was around my eggs, I was happy.
在接下来的两周里，我全身心沉浸在孵化小鸡上。我把鸡蛋贴上了A、B、C、D、E和F，但不久它们就有了自己的名字：艾比、邦妮、克莱德、德克斯特、尤妮斯和弗洛伦斯。我每天给它们称体重，光照查看，给它们翻身。我甚至觉得让他们听到咯咯鸡叫声会有好处，所以有一段时间我也这么做了，但是咯咯叫太累了！在我的小小鸡群边上哼唱要容易得多，所以我用唱歌取代咯咯叫。很快我就不经意地哼唱起来，在我的鸡蛋周围，我很开心。
I read The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens cover to cover twice. For my project I drew diagrams of the various stages of an embryo’s development, I made a giant chicken poster, I graphed the daily fluctuations in temperature and humidity, and I made a line chart documenting the weight loss of each egg. On the outside eggs were boring, but I knew what was happening on the inside!
我从头到尾读了两遍《养鸡初学者指南》。在我的项目中，我绘制了胚胎发育的不同阶段的图表，我制作了一幅巨大的小鸡海报，记录下每天温度和湿度的波动，我绘制了一个曲线图，记录每只鸡蛋的失去重量的情况。从外面看来，鸡蛋索然无味，但我知道里面正在发生什么！
Then two days before the science fair I was candling Bonnie when I noticed something. I called my dad into my room and said, “Look, Dad! Look at this! Is that the heart beating?”
在科学展的前两天，我正在光照检查那只叫邦妮的鸡蛋，这时我发现了变化。我把爸爸叫到我的房间说：“看，爸爸！看看这个！那是心脏在跳动吗？”
He studied it for a moment, then smiled and said, “Let me get your mother.”
他研究了一会儿，笑着说：“我去喊你妈妈来。”
So the three of us crowded around and watched Bonnie’s heart beat, and even my mother had to admit that it was absolutely amazing.
所以我们三个人挤在一起，观察着邦妮的心跳，连妈妈也不得不承认这真是太神奇了。
Clyde was the first to pip. And of course he did it right before I had to leave for school. His little beak cracked through, and while I held my breath and waited, he rested. And rested. Finally his beak poked through again, but almost right away, he rested again. How could I go to school and just leave him this way? What if he needed my help? Surely this was a valid reason to stay home, at least for a little while!
克莱德是第一个出壳的。当然，它在我要去上学之前就开始破壳了。它小小的喙戳开壳，当我屏住呼吸等待时，它停下休息了。继续休息。终于，它的喙又伸了出来，但几乎同时它又缩回休息了。我怎么就这样扔下它去学校呢？如果它需要我的帮助怎么办？这当然是一个呆在家里的正当理由，至少要多待一会儿！
My father tried to assure me that hatching out could take all day and that there’d be plenty of action left after school, but I’d have none of that. Oh, no-no-no! I wanted to see Abby and Bonnie and Clyde and Dexter and Eunice and Florence come into the world. Every single one of them. “I can’t miss the hatch!” I told him. “Not even a second of it!”
我父亲试图向我保证，孵化过程可能需要一整天，放学后还能看到很多孵化过程，但我不想听。哦，不，不，不！我想亲眼看到艾比、邦妮、克莱德、德克斯特、尤妮斯和弗洛伦斯它们中的每一只来到这个世界上。“我不能错过它们的出壳！”我对爸爸说。“一秒钟也不行！”
读后小记
从鸡蛋孵化出小鸡的过程，原来并非我们想象的那么简单，Juli和父亲需要自己建造孵化器和湿度计，精确控制温度和湿度，还要经常性翻转鸡蛋。学霸Juli的名号果然名不虚传，对鸡蛋孵化过程，绘制各种图表记录变化，甚至制作海报。她老爸高质量的实践学习陪伴更值得点赞。
昨晚姐妹几个聊天时，妹妹发来自家正在实验孵化蛋的照片。真是无巧不成书，我的故事正好讲到了这一章节。这张照片真是应时应景啊！你能看见里面胚胎的清晰的血管经脉吗？
猜猜下图孵化的是什么蛋呢？---哈哈哈，答案2个月后揭晓。
